Ravings of a Textual Deviant

Monster Under the Covers

Laundry Commando

Climb the Housemonkey

Midnight Marauder

Toe Catch-and-Release

Plumbing Explorer

Dust Mote Destroyer

Hide and Peek

Catch the Air

Hey, That’s My Tail!

My new HVAC system is installed. It works. And there is much rejoicing.

Mags had his post-adoption vet check today, and I’m told he’s in perfect health. He’s also a bit younger than estimated by the shelter; he’s still got a few baby teeth, in fact. He’s probably around eight months old, rather than fifteen. That makes a lot of sense, as he’s still got some kittenish behavior going on. He and Minx seem to be getting along quite well. They’re managing to share the litterbox and water fountain, but have their own food bowls, because they get two different kinds of food. I suspect they’re snacking on each others’ crunchies, but it’s not as though that’s going to hurt either one of them. All in all, Kittyland is a good place to be these days.

I had to say good-bye to one of my technical writers at work today; he’s moving to another state in a couple of weeks. I hate to see him go, on both a personal and a professional level. I try to not get too close to the people who work for me, even when I genuinely like them, because that can be an uncomfortable social situation in the office, smacks of favoritism, etc. But I do, in fact, genuinely like the people on my team, even when they’re driving me nuts. As for professionally, everyone on my team is good at his or her job. Everyone is doing their best to get along with everyone else, and it’s been very good, lately. My ex-writer also learns fast, teaches others well, has a great sense of humor, and always gives 100%. I thanked him for all his hard work. I wished him good luck. And I was already missing him as I collected his security badge and headed back to my desk.

My AC did not get fixed Wednesday. The company I called had a second visit from the screw-up fairy, and I have absolutely no faith that their tech is going to show up “after 2:00 today,” having heard those exact same words yesterday. Not to mention “our tech work until they’re done,” and “I’ll have the tech call you and let you know when he’ll be there,” none of which turned out to be true. When I’m 4th in the queue at 4:30 PM and still there at 10:00 PM, I’m not impressed, to say the least. I’m really not impressed when Screw-Up Fairy AC Repair can’t even be bothered to a) call me and let me know that the tech’s not going to make it, b) lies to me the next morning about how long they’ve been trying to call me to set up an appointment, and c) has to ask “were you supposed to be on the schedule yesterday?” However, hope springs eternal, and if I actually get a visit from an AC tech from Screw-Up Fairy AC Repair, great. But I’m hedging my bets; I’m on standby with another company, and I will happily pay whoever shows up first.

One way or another, my AC is getting fixed today, because this heat (and humidity) has just about burned out my patience and my sense of humor.

UPDATE

Well, the good news is that Second-Choice AC Repair was in my driveway around 10:30 this morning. The bad news is that the least expensive option is about 1/3 the cost of replacing an overage heating and cooling system.  Second-Choice AC Repair offers a high-interest payment plan, which is my only option for about half the cost of replacement. And I just paid off my last high-interest credit card yesterday. I’m going for the high-efficiency replacement anyway, because I am NOT sinking money into an over-twenty-year-old system, and given that the efficiency standards just went up, I might as well bite the bullet now.

On top of everything else, I’m going to have to wait until Second-Choice AC Repair has the time available to install the new unit, and who knows when that’ll be, given that most places are logging hundreds of service requests a day right now.

UPDATE 2

New Housemate saves the day, and about $2200! He found Another Company that can install a very nice system on Sunday(!) for considerably less than what Second-Choice AC Repair quoted, and a day earlier. If the weather cools down a bit as predicted, we should be a bit more comfortable until then, too.